John Biggs

Biggs has written for the New York Times, InSync, USA Weekend, Popular Mechanics, Popular Science, Money and a number of other outlets on technology and wristwatches. He is the former editor-in-chief of Gizmodo.com and lives in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. You can Tweet him here. Email him directly at john@techcrunch.com.

Disclosures:
John is an unpaid advisor to Riffle, a social books platform.
John is CEO of Freeport Mobile, Inc. Bre Pettis, formerly of Makerbot, is an investor.

Latest from John Biggs

http://s86.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vid86.photobucket.com/albums/k90/crunchgear/February%202007/iphone_oscars_02252007.flv
Vincent at MyiPhone went above and beyond the call of duty and grabbed the iPhone Oscar commercial before anyone else. The commercial was kind of dopey. You could just see the marketing folks sitting down saying “OK, we have $40 million and not much time. Read More

Watch it. You’ll either laugh, cry, or want to start a flame war, but this is a perfect example of an audience talking back to a massive corporation that has lost its way. Sony — watch this multiple times and send a translated version to Tokyo, just so they get all the nuance. Read More

Let’s extend a warm, wet CG “how-are-ya” to our own Bryce Durbin, resident artiste. Love it or hate it, Bryce’s work has really spiced up our site and I think he has really got the Web 2.0/GadgetWonk zeitgeist down thanks to his creative, yet calamari-like creations.
Thanks, Bryce, and happy birthday. Read More

rails against DRM on Salon this morning, saying that it’s basically a tax against future hardware purchases. The reasoning is fairly simple: the more 99 cent tracks you buy, the harder it will be to get rid of your Zune or your iPod or your FrankoMP3eo 2007.
This line of argument is fairly cogent but the article says little new. It is, however, nice to hear from Cory’s other… Read More

I’m coming to understand the majesty of Intelligent Design. The thesis, obviously, is that many natural things are too complex to be created be the vagaries of evolution, which forces us to believe in a prime mover or creator. Here is another example of intelligent design, for verily how could a stoned college kid from UC-Berkeley create such a masterful system for rolling, cutting… Read More

Here’s a great keyboard mod involving glass and nickel keys on a polished brass frame. The build images are incredible and when he ran out of keys — old typewriters didn’t have a “help” key — he simply bought a few brass trimmed buttons and made his own.
Project Page via Make Read More

Gadget Shop is selling the odd version of the RoboSapien dressed in full Spidey regalia. The robot has some Spidey web-slinging moves — but no webs — and says quotes from the movie. We see above young Susi Weaver of Shiny Shiny getting an earful about Spidey and the robot costs $135.
Product Page Read More

Well, here’s a bit of news you can use while you spend 70 hours trying to finish Zelda. The Wii uses considerably less electricity than the PS3 or Xbox 360 and makes the PC look as wasteful as a Hummer with a hole in its gas tank.
At its peak, the Wii sucked down 18.4 Watts during gameplay as compared to 209.7 Watts in the PC and 199.7 Watts in the PS3. The total power consumption is… Read More

I wasn’t really following the Joost train but now my interest is piqued. Ars Technica got their hands on the OS X client and was duly impressed. Except for a few odd problems, it looks like it’s running quite well and is an exact replica of the Windows client.
As much as I like Media Center and hopefully will like Apple TV, this looks like the future. Just as Skype has replaced… Read More

Ah, college. Those heady days between being able to drive and being able to get a job, settle down, and wait patiently for death. Is there anything better than sitting down during your late teens and early twenties and learning about file sharing from a fat man named Mitch (shown here)? I didn’t think so.
It seems that the RIAA is sending out thousands of complaints to universities… Read More

Tired of sleeping with women? Try the Star Trek Light Dimmer! This $40 device connects to your light switch and allows you to say “Computer, Disengage Lights” and it will comply by turning off the lights. I mean it’s sort of a computer, right? It’s binary?
The dimmer even replies in the voice of Majel Roddenberry, Gene’s wife, to ensure that your lonely nights can… Read More

Let’s recap, shall we? You arrive at the airport and a little man in a vest yells at you to move your car and stop hugging. Then you move to the front counter or perhaps a buggy kiosk and wait until Lomo the Ticket Agent stops talking on his cell long enough to press three buttons. You then get patted down, all of your liquids taken away, eyed with suspicion, and then forced to walk on… Read More

Phonescoop just spotted an odd slider from Pantech in some FCC filings. The phone, officially called the Pantech PN-810, has three layers. Sliding it up reveals a standard keypad while sliding it sideway reveals a QWERTY keypad. It has EVDO, Bluetooth, and a 2.1-megapixel camera. Not sure what Helio will call it, but it looks quite promising.
Dual-Sliding Messenger Phone for Helio Spotted on… Read More

Friend of the Crunch, Noah Shachtman, formerly of DefenseTech, just launched a new blog with Wired called Danger Room. Noah writes extensively on defense and military issues and promises his new blog will be pretty far out.
We’ll be talking about what’s next in law enforcement, homeland security, and the military here. Not just the gear — although you’ll get more… Read More

A very reliable source just reporting the Vonage is going to start offering branded calling cards which will offer about 200 free minutes and direct billing to subscriber phone numbers. They are aiming at business travellers who want to use their “home” phone number on the road and will include a unique key-generating system for security.
Vonage is the most visible VoIP carrier… Read More

. Why, you ask?
If you’re simply looking for a fun game system, you can find a Nintendo Wii (try eBay) or Xbox for around $400. You could also simply wait for more PS3 games or for the system itself to come down in price.
Heresy! What does AOL know anyway! And they also say don’t buy Vista. What douches. Let’s go and flame them, fellow sub-literate fanboys. Fly! Fly!
Top… Read More

I was never really good at Guitar Hero — too fast! Too much hard music! — but I think I could probably rock it on the C64 if they eventually ported/cloned it. After all, I was really good at Falcon Quest and that 20 questions program that we used to play back in grade school.
Anyway, Toni’s Shredz64 is an effort to connect the Guitar Hero controller to a Commodore 64 using an… Read More

, a program that will play your music on any computer, even one without iTunes. The iPod and iTunes are both great products, but to some the inability to use it anywhere and everywhere is a bit grating. This definitely settles the score.
Hack Attack: Add music and movies to your iPod from any computer without iTunes [Lifehacker] Read More